Luca Spagnolo celebrates as he jams home his second goal of the game in the Lincolns’ 4-1 win over the Listowel Cyclones on Nov. 15. Spagnolo’s first goal of the game was his 50th career GOJHL goal. Photo credit: McGinny Photography
By Spencer Seymour
It took the St. Marys Lincolns until almost 40 percent of their season had been played to lose consecutive games for the first time.
Fortunately, it didn’t take nearly as long to end that losing skid.
After losing 2-1 to the Strathroy Rockets on Nov. 8, the Lincolns travelled to LaSalle, looking for redemption against the Vipers. Despite a strong performance, St. Marys fell 4-3, marking the first time this season the Lincs have lost two games in a row, and just the second time they have given up more than three goals in a game.
“The result was certainly disappointing,” said Lincolns’ head coach Jeff Bradley. “We did a lot of good things. I thought we played really well. We wanted to get in on the forecheck and make life tough on their defence and I thought we did an outstanding job at that. But we had momentary lapses in concentration and focus. Three of LaSalle’s goals came off three uncharacteristic plays where we weren’t focused.
“As a team that wants to be a top contender all season, we can’t be making those mistakes.”
After a scoreless first period, Luca Spagnolo opened the scoring for the Lincolns four minutes and 11 seconds into the second, followed by Ryan Hodkinson ending a four-game goal drought for his seventh of the year just two minutes and 24 seconds later.
However, while the Lincolns were completely dominant for the first half of the period, they began leaking oil in the latter half, when several of the atypical blunders mentioned by the bench boss led to the Vipers tying the game at two apiece on goals by Adriano Tonin and Bryce Belleau.
In the third, against all odds, Hodkinson and Owen Voortman broke out for a two-on-one, despite the Lincolns being in the midst of a five-on-three disadvantage, with Hodkinson setting up Voortman to bury his seventh of the season. But just 16 seconds later, Alec Stewart capped a quick rush off the faceoff and tied the game for LaSalle.
Just under three minutes later, and a little over halfway through the third, Zach Vaillancourt fired the go-ahead goal, giving the Vipers their first lead of the game and the eventual game-winning goal.
Bradley contrasted the loss to LaSalle with their preceding defeat at the hands of Strathroy, calling the loss to the Vipers “more frustrating” due to feeling his team gave away the two points far more than they had done against the Rockets.
“I don’t think we beat ourselves against Strathroy. There are always two teams playing the game and Strathroy came in with a really good gameplan that they executed very well, and we didn’t respond the right way. But against LaSalle, they worked hard, but three of their four goals were entirely preventable. We gave them three goals and ultimately gave away the game, and that’s the frustrating part.”
Despite the loss, several Lincolns impressed the head coach, namely two of the team’s rearguards.
“Julian [Stubgen] and Jacob [Montesi] were great,” Bradley said. “For Julian, it’s taken him a little bit of time to get fully comfortable. He’s obviously got some great offensive tools but we’ve challenged him to also be reliable defensively, and lately, he’s been playing some really great hockey. And Jacob, he’s just a true Lincoln. He knows how we expect him to play. He knows exactly what we need from him.”
Bradley also named first-year forward Dylan Searles as bringing an impressive level of tenacity and consistency to the Lincolns’ forward group.
“Coming into this season, I didn’t know much about Dylan, but Pat was really high on him and he’s become an outstanding young player for us. He’s just so trustworthy, he works incredibly hard, and he does whatever you need him to do. He’s happy to learn, happy to contribute however you need him, and happy to do what his team needs. As a coach, you love having players like Dylan.”
Lincs swarm Stars in 3-2 bounce-back
In the Lincolns’ second of six straight away games on Nov. 14, despite having the ice tilted to the Stars’ zone, St. Thomas managed to get an odd-man rush with Matthew O’Sullivan feeding to lights-out goal-scoring machine, Lincoln Moore, who had goals in each of his first five games this season and currently has 10 goals in just six games since joining the Stars.
The Lincs’ general control of the play finally paid off with 20 seconds left in the first when Voortman tied the game at one apiece heading into the first intermission.
Bradley explained the team’s puck movement left him very happy with the group’s opening 20 minutes.
“Even though it was 1-1, we were playing really well, so we had pretty positive feedback after the first period. We talked about continuing to do what we were doing along with a couple of minor adjustments and hoping that would pay off, which eventually it did. Our whole team played well. From top to bottom, I thought everybody gave us some really good minutes.
“Our puck support was great,” Bradley added. “At times, you can get a bit complacent and in our last couple of games, we weren’t moving the puck as well as we could have. Our outlet guys didn’t have any options. But against St. Thomas, I thought we did a much better job moving the puck the way we need to. We looked like a pro team in the first period.”
A little over seven minutes into the second frame, Owen Kalp fired a wrist shot through a maze of bodies and by goaltender Erik Maki for his second of the year to put the Lincs ahead by one. Just shy of 10 minutes later, Voortman picked the top right corner with yet another screen in front of Maki to register his second goal of the night, this time on the powerplay.
Moore found the back of the net for the second time for St. Thomas on a third-period powerplay to get the Stars within one, but St. Marys preserved the one-goal lead to take a 3-2 victory and end their losing slide at two games. Colby Booth-Housego made 24 saves to earn the win in between the pipes.
Veterans shine in feisty finals rematch
If there was any doubt that the litany of returning players on both benches had left their rivalry born in the 2024 Sutherland Cup Final, the Lincolns and Cyclones quickly erased it when they met in Listowel on Nov. 15.
Although the Lincolns emerged with the 4-1 victory in the end, coach Bradley admitted it took them a minute to catch up to the Cyclones.
“We had a bit of a rough start, but I think it was moreso about Listowel coming out really hard. They had lost the night before and needed a win, and obviously assumed we would come out firing so they played hard to match us and overmatched us in the first. But once we started really pushing back and getting in on the forecheck, we turned the game in our favour.”
In Bradley’s eyes, his squad found their stride through their intense work ethic.
“Our guys just battled incredibly hard,” remarked Bradley. “That was our first game this season that’s been a playoff-type atmosphere and attitude by our guys, and it was the same for Listowel. They obviously play very hard. They are very organized. We needed a minute to get there mentally, but once we did, there was no stopping us.”
With the Cyclones getting the early jump on the Lincolns, Listowel got out to a 1-0 lead when Teegan Middleton fired a point shot through a net-front crowd that sailed over Booth-Housego. That would prove to be the only shot that got by Booth-Housego, who made 22 saves to earn his 10th win of the season.
Not only has Booth-Housego won all but one of his 11 games, he has also posted a save percentage of 0.909 or higher in 10 of 11 appearances. On nine occasions, Booth-Housego’s save percentage has been at least 0.923 or higher.
On the season, Booth-Housego along with Nico Armellin have identical save percentages of 0.944, which, along with what Bradley explained as an “outstanding attention to detail” on the defensive side of the puck by the entire team, has allowed the Lincolns to boast an implausibly-stellar goals-against through 19 games.
With 29 goals against in 19 games, the Lincolns are currently on pace to give up approximately 77 goals in the regular season, which would be 26 fewer than last year’s Sutherland Cup-winning Listowel Cyclones.
“They care about not getting scored on and know the importance of taking care of our end,” praised Bradley. “They know they’ve got a good gauge of when they’re in trouble and when they can loosen up a bit. You look at our conference, we’re playing a tough team every night, so you have to be on your toes. They are well-prepared and willing to do what they to do to execute our plan.”
The Lincolns emerged in the middle stanza with a more vigorous intensity, leading to Spagnolo tying the contest at one apiece. The goal was the 50th of Spagnolo’s GOJHL career, all but one of which came with St. Marys.
The final frame was when the Lincs’ burgeoning momentum finally pushed them over the top, beginning with Jaden Lee scoring just 24 seconds into the third. Spagnolo added his second of the night at the 8:51 mark of the period with a powerplay marker before Lee capped off a four-point night when he banked the puck off Listowel netminder Jack Bree from below the goal line.
The team’s veterans, per coach Bradley, led the Lincolns in every facet of the game, with Spagnolo, Lee, Voortman, and Ryder Livermore turning in especially stellar performances.
“Luca, Jaden, and Owen were obviously incredible. Ryder was outstanding as well. Those guys are leaders on this team, and they played like true leaders in that game. Chase [MacQueen-Spence], Ryan [Hodkinson], and Ethan [Coups] had strong games. A lot of our older guys really brought it and matched the physicality that Listowel threw at us.
“Ryder in particular was the big leader of all that,” Bradley continued. “Once everyone saw Ryder start going face-first into the hard, physical battles, the next guy followed after that and everyone kept it up. Our leaders set the tone for us and got us through in a really impressive way.”
Bradley was also thrilled with how his team rose to the pressure-cooker atmosphere accompanying the game.
“You’re playing a team as good as Listowel. It’s their spotlight game and your first time playing the defending Sutherland Cup Champions since losing to them in the finals. It was really the perfect opportunity for us to test ourselves and see if those three losses we’ve had this year was something to worry about or just one of those little lulls that happen sometimes. Looking at how we played [on Nov. 15], you can look at those three losses and say, ‘You can’t win every game.’ We played absolutely fantastic against Listowel.”
“It’s fun to be a part of a game like that and be a part of something that meant so much to the guys. There isn’t going to be any revenge or redemption in a regular season game for what we went through the last time we were in that building, but our guys wanted to show them and show the rest of the league that we’re better for it and we’re turning all that pain turned into something good.”
